As a technology enthusiast, I look to utilize technology to to create more efficiency in my life. That is why even though I have 3 different phone numbers to reach me, I only need one device to receive all of the calls.Not too long ago, I would have had a personal cell phone, a landline for my home and a landline for my business. From there, I could have had my two landlines forward calls to my cell, but the options would have been to either receive the Caller ID of the call coming in and not know which line was ringing or that the Caller ID would show the line that was ringing (the forwarded line) and not the actual ID of the caller.Now I just use three different apps on the same cell phone and still have the “landline” at home with a cordless phone (the cordless phone never gets used).Here is how I have it set up:

1. My personal cell phone number - this has followed me through a few cross country moves and is still a number from Portland, Oregon that I have not wanted to give up. It is the natural number on the phone and was assigned by AT&T. I used the default dialer on my mobile phone for making and receiving calls with this number.
2. Google Voice, now using Google Hangouts to make and receive calls. This is my local number for work calls and messages. It is  separate app with a separate ring, but it still uses my phone’s address book to recognize incoming calls.
3. Vonage. This is my shared (with my wife and my kids when they are older) home “landline” and while it does ring on a home phone, it simultaneously rings on both my wife’s and my phones in the Vonage app. This is great for things like providing to doctors’ offices contact number; it keeps one or the other of us from being the only contact for appointments and such. Again, it uses the phone’s address book to recognize knowing incoming calls.

I have had to tinker a bit to get the best voicemail setups especially between my personal and work numbers. At first I was using Google Voice for the voicemail for both, but I have found it useful to use different services between the two. Once all is setup, I made sure and tested it by calling from different numbers to each and leaving messages to ensure all settings were in place.Now it is quite easy to see which number I am receiving a call on when my phone rings and I can answer it appropriately.Let me know if you have any questions.Thanks for stopping by!- Paul Burnstein, aka Gadget Guy MN - Tech Handyman and Digital Dad